Coach Sonny Dykes promises Cal Bears will be competitive

LOS ANGELES -- No one is more excited than Cal that a new college football season is at hand.

"I can't stress how happy we are to have last year in the past and to be where we are now," sophomore quarterback Jared Goff said Wednesday at Pac-12 media day. "We can see the growth -- mentally, physically. It's a different team. It's not even remotely the same team as last year."

Coming off a 1-11 season, the Bears open Aug. 30 at Northwestern. Coach Sonny Dykes said fans will have no trouble seeing the difference in his squad.

"We were so bad last year, I think the improvement's going to be pretty obvious," Dykes said. "We weren't very competitive last year in a lot of games. That's going to be the biggest difference, competing in games, giving ourselves an opportunity to win.

"What happened so often last year is midway through the first quarter you'd look up and we were down by 21 points. I think it's going to be obvious to everybody -- our fans, our opponents -- that we're going to be a much-improved football team."

The Bears were winless against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents and their defense allowed nearly 46 points per game.

Goff, who passed for a school-record 3,508 yards as a true freshman, said the 2013 fiasco was an offseason motivator, but that players are no longer dwelling on the past.

"It's behind us. We're no longer thinking about last season," he said. "We're excited to move forward, make a new brand for ourselves."

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The Bears' No. 1 priority this season is to transform opportunity into points. The Bears piled up gaudy yardage totals last season, but it didn't translate into touchdowns. Cal ranked last in the Pac-12 in red-zone efficiency, converting just 21 of 43 chances for touchdowns. "It's definitely frustrating, getting down there so many times and not being able to punch it in," Goff said. "Getting that ball from the 20 to the goal line is the whole game, really."

Dykes said senior Chris Adcock, who missed the final eight games last season with a knee injury, probably will regain the starting center spot, allowing junior Jordan Rigsbee to move to the troublesome right tackle position.

Cal still is awaiting word on whether James Looney, a sophomore defensive tackle transfer from Wake Forest, will be granted a waiver to be immediately eligible this season. Dykes said Looney would be an impact player, if available.

Oregon easily topped Stanford as the pick to win the Pac-12 North Division in the league's annual media poll. Stanford, which shared the North title with Oregon last season, was tabbed to finish second. Cal was picked to finish last in the North again. UCLA topped USC for the top spot in the Pac-12 South. The Ducks were given the nod over the Bruins in the Pac-12 title game, which will be played Dec. 5 at the new Levi's Stadium.

There likely will be no agreement between the Pac-12 Networks and DirecTV for the third straight football season, conference commissioner Larry Scott said. "It looks very unlikely under the present ownership of DirecTV that they're going to carry us," Scott said. AT&T announced in May its intention to purchase DirecTV in a $48.5 billion deal that is not yet finalized. "I'm much more hopeful that when AT&T buys DirecTV we'll have different kinds of discussions and outcomes," Scott said.